During the use of certain industrial vehicles, there are times when an excessive weight is applied to one end of the vehicle, causing the other end of the vehicle to lift from the ground or lose traction with the ground. This becomes a hazardous situation for the vehicle operator and the personnel and equipment adjacent the vehicle. For example, if a scoop is attached to the front end of a tractor for lifting dirt, gravel, or other heavy materials, there are times when the operator will overload the scoop and when the scoop is raised by the tractor, the rear wheels of the tractor may lift away from the ground. This places the tractor in an unstable condition where the load is borne primarily by only the front wheels of the tractor. Likewise, when equipment is attached to the rear of a tractor, a similar situation can occur, when the load at the rear of the tractor causes the front, steerable wheels of the tractor to lift away from the ground, generating a similar undesirable situation for the vehicle and its operator.
In the past, it has become commonplace to add weights to the wheels of vehicles when it is anticipated that the wheels might lift away from the ground or if more weight is required by wheels for applying the proper traction between the wheel and the ground surface.
In some instances, wheels for industrial vehicles have a dish shaped wheel disk, convex on one side and concave on the other side. With this structure, the wheel can be reversed with respect to the hub, placing the tire closer to or farther away from the vehicle. This is sometimes used to adjust the spacing of the wheels closer to or farther away from each other, so as to be spaced in accordance with the spacing of rows of crops in a farmer's field, or to widen the stance of the vehicle to provide additional stability.
One of the problems encountered with the producers of wheel weights is that there are so many sizes and shapes of wheels, most with different lug spacing, that there is no "universal" wheel weight. Even the wheels of a single manufacturer vary so much in size and shape that different wheel weights must be produced for proper fitting against the different shaped disks of the wheels.
Therefore, it can be seen that there is a need for a universal wheel weight having different shaped opposed surfaces so that it is reversible for attachment to concave or to convex wheel disks, and with the formation of openings therein for attachment to a different lug pattern for the different wheels.